As a much older person (I’ve got two months on DJT, if you must know), I’m irritated and frustrated by Reels and TikTok. They are sent to me by a friend only 9 years younger who is addicted. I can’t stand the way they cut off a song after 30 seconds, or the “push” feature where one reel leads seamlessly into another you never asked for. I’m in no danger of getting addicted, because I’m so repelled.
What I’ve become addicted to, ironically, is reading Substack essays like this one. They keep coming, too. I can’t get through a book anymore.
I have the same problem and the way I solved it (at least partially) is that I set a time for reading a book (5-7pm). I do read outside that time period, sometimes, but having the set time really helps me keep my book-reading brain-zone in shape, and it's a treat that I look forward to. It helps that I'm retired.
Thank you for this good suggestion! I'm not retired but I'm a longtime freelance who doesn't manage time well, to put it mildly. Some scheduling would help.
I thought I was the only one inexorably attracted to checking up my favourite Substack writers. Phew, there's joy in not feeling all alone in this world. On a more serious note, addiction to high-quality writing is something that precedes online facilities and can be easily detected in the amount of books bought or borrowed (and sometimes never returned, the latter of course).
I give credit to this young lady for at least being able to get outside of the problem to be able to examine it. I'm somewhat of a Luddite, and didn't even have a flip phone until my sixties. I can see in just a few years how my attention and concentration has been debauched. And of course, I remember a "before." For people under forty, this digital, interconnected reality is all they've known, the water they swim in. I think to be able to "see" the world has always been hard, at least it was for me, but to be able to do it with a mind that has been subject to so much distraction? Much harder.
Many young conservatives I know don't have smart phones... I think there is still something "in the air" that is affecting them and all of us. Maybe, if everyone else has a smart phone the sub-culture that rejects them is too small to create momentum in a different direction?
OK, I would say good use of mcluhan. Interesting that you describe reels as a hot medium when that is usually reserved for single sense media in high definition like radio and print.
But given that we are still mapping out the Internet, I’m gonna add that to my list of possibilities.
One thing we must consider is what McLuhan mentioned many times and that is how any participation in electronic media is disembodied and denies the existence of male and female by its very nature.
We are neither men nor women in digital space. we are conditioned to be something neither nor. And this is going to be very difficult on relationships where the attraction and desire to be in them is going to be based on some sex polarity, as well as the desire to nurture and take care of one another, and relate to one another through our bodies.
And suddenly here we are finding ourselves reincarnated in a world where we are able to exist without our bodies most of the time.
I'm interested in the profound psychology implications of the use of TT to form opinions and gain validation and regulate emotions, especially for young women. I suspect that this is a social crisis in the making, which is already drastically changing our culture.
It's a new cultural formation/transmission route and it's incredibly powerful. I'm happy to see more and more people talking about it, and not just effects like body dysmorphia or insecurity or depression. The changes are deeper and more extensive than those symptoms might indicate.
Excellent! I've read this week Christine Emba's "Rethinking Sex: A Provocation" (Sentinel, 2022) which completes the description of the problem in the case of pornography. "There is something unmistakably off in the way we've been going about sex and dating" (p. xiii).
I think it is a brilliant article, no one mentions the authors exposed here, as I have retired your article has awakened in me a novel that I lived many times.
Thank you very much, L'amore è un misto di forza del cuore e rabbia delle labbra...
I think it is a brilliant article, no one mentions the authors exposed here, as I have retired your article has awakened in me a novel that I lived many times.
Thank you very much, L'amore è un misto di forza del cuore e rabbia delle labbra...
I think it is a brilliant article, no one mentions the authors exposed here, as I have retired your article has awakened in me a novel that I lived many times.
Thank you very much, L'amore è un misto di forza del cuore e rabbia delle labbra...
This is an excellent piece. We take it for granted that there is huge rift between conservatives and liberals, but in reality the technological environment in which we live actually makes all of us more and more similar. To quote McLuhan again - “If we understand the revolutionary transformations caused by new media, we can anticipate and control them. But, if we continue in our self-induced subliminal trance, we will be their slaves.”
thank you for platforming a new voice!! Really important to get this awareness going. No parent should give their kid a phone, it should be obvious. Adults should limit their exposure, because it is not just the youth who are vulnerable.
Frightening.
As a much older person (I’ve got two months on DJT, if you must know), I’m irritated and frustrated by Reels and TikTok. They are sent to me by a friend only 9 years younger who is addicted. I can’t stand the way they cut off a song after 30 seconds, or the “push” feature where one reel leads seamlessly into another you never asked for. I’m in no danger of getting addicted, because I’m so repelled.
What I’ve become addicted to, ironically, is reading Substack essays like this one. They keep coming, too. I can’t get through a book anymore.
I agree with you. It's like a lot of them look like somethings about to happen, then end. It's the cock tease of content.
I have the same problem and the way I solved it (at least partially) is that I set a time for reading a book (5-7pm). I do read outside that time period, sometimes, but having the set time really helps me keep my book-reading brain-zone in shape, and it's a treat that I look forward to. It helps that I'm retired.
Thank you for this good suggestion! I'm not retired but I'm a longtime freelance who doesn't manage time well, to put it mildly. Some scheduling would help.
I thought I was the only one inexorably attracted to checking up my favourite Substack writers. Phew, there's joy in not feeling all alone in this world. On a more serious note, addiction to high-quality writing is something that precedes online facilities and can be easily detected in the amount of books bought or borrowed (and sometimes never returned, the latter of course).
Of course I have a bad case of Tsundoku.
https://lithub.com/the-pleasures-of-tsundoku-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-book-piles/
I give credit to this young lady for at least being able to get outside of the problem to be able to examine it. I'm somewhat of a Luddite, and didn't even have a flip phone until my sixties. I can see in just a few years how my attention and concentration has been debauched. And of course, I remember a "before." For people under forty, this digital, interconnected reality is all they've known, the water they swim in. I think to be able to "see" the world has always been hard, at least it was for me, but to be able to do it with a mind that has been subject to so much distraction? Much harder.
Many young conservatives I know don't have smart phones... I think there is still something "in the air" that is affecting them and all of us. Maybe, if everyone else has a smart phone the sub-culture that rejects them is too small to create momentum in a different direction?
OK, I would say good use of mcluhan. Interesting that you describe reels as a hot medium when that is usually reserved for single sense media in high definition like radio and print.
But given that we are still mapping out the Internet, I’m gonna add that to my list of possibilities.
One thing we must consider is what McLuhan mentioned many times and that is how any participation in electronic media is disembodied and denies the existence of male and female by its very nature.
We are neither men nor women in digital space. we are conditioned to be something neither nor. And this is going to be very difficult on relationships where the attraction and desire to be in them is going to be based on some sex polarity, as well as the desire to nurture and take care of one another, and relate to one another through our bodies.
And suddenly here we are finding ourselves reincarnated in a world where we are able to exist without our bodies most of the time.
I'm interested in the profound psychology implications of the use of TT to form opinions and gain validation and regulate emotions, especially for young women. I suspect that this is a social crisis in the making, which is already drastically changing our culture.
It's a new cultural formation/transmission route and it's incredibly powerful. I'm happy to see more and more people talking about it, and not just effects like body dysmorphia or insecurity or depression. The changes are deeper and more extensive than those symptoms might indicate.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/the-hive
Excellent! I've read this week Christine Emba's "Rethinking Sex: A Provocation" (Sentinel, 2022) which completes the description of the problem in the case of pornography. "There is something unmistakably off in the way we've been going about sex and dating" (p. xiii).
I think it is a brilliant article, no one mentions the authors exposed here, as I have retired your article has awakened in me a novel that I lived many times.
Thank you very much, L'amore è un misto di forza del cuore e rabbia delle labbra...
I think it is a brilliant article, no one mentions the authors exposed here, as I have retired your article has awakened in me a novel that I lived many times.
Thank you very much, L'amore è un misto di forza del cuore e rabbia delle labbra...
I think it is a brilliant article, no one mentions the authors exposed here, as I have retired your article has awakened in me a novel that I lived many times.
Thank you very much, L'amore è un misto di forza del cuore e rabbia delle labbra...
This is an excellent piece. We take it for granted that there is huge rift between conservatives and liberals, but in reality the technological environment in which we live actually makes all of us more and more similar. To quote McLuhan again - “If we understand the revolutionary transformations caused by new media, we can anticipate and control them. But, if we continue in our self-induced subliminal trance, we will be their slaves.”
Brilliant
thank you for platforming a new voice!! Really important to get this awareness going. No parent should give their kid a phone, it should be obvious. Adults should limit their exposure, because it is not just the youth who are vulnerable.